Two weeks have gone by, and I have not updated. I'm sorry about that, but I've found myself deep in the trenches of homework and midterm exams. In fact, as I write this, I am looking at a mound of books and papers I need to study for my exams this week. I haven't had much time for anything lately, and hopefully soon, the work will settle down, and I'll be able to enjoy Paris again!
That doesn't mean I haven't been having my fair share of fun. The weekends have been crammed full of fun meeting Brett in interesting places. Two weekends ago, we met in Basel, Switzerland, a town right on the border of France and Germany. Unfortunately, everyone spoke German there, so I wasn't able to practice my French. Brett and I agreed that Basel wasn't that much different from the rest of the Rhine region, and besides for the yummy Swiss chocolate, Switzerland proved to be much too expensive. So we left for Freiburg and I decided to spend Saturday and Sunday night at Brett's apartment.
Freiburg was not as crazy as the last time I saw it. The Mardi Gras Karnival had wound down to an end and now it was a much quieter town. Brett and I visited our favorite eating places. We went to Martinsbrau brewery and had some beer, stopped at the bakery and got a pretzel, went to the grocery store and bought bratwurst...On Sunday night, we decided to go out to eat because I realized that Brett had never had a German dinner in a German restaurant! So Brett and I checked out a place walking distance from his apartment that was very quaint. There was one other party dining there and they laughed at us and barked German. We didn't really know what they were saying or what was going on. After we ordered our Schnitzel, we realized that they didn't take credit cards, so we only had enough money for one plate of Schnitzel. It ended up being ok, because the plate was pretty filling, but it was pretty silly that we were splitting one plate for dinner.
After dinner, Brett took me to Hemingway bar where Hemingway's son hung out when he was in Freiburg. Kind of a bizarre theme, but of course Brett had to check out anything connected to Hemingway. It was decorated with pictures of Hemingway and the bathrooms made bird sounds. We got a nice bowl of pretzles to go with our drinks, so I think we will return to this bar over spring break.
So another week went by and then Brett came to Paris again. We just got a hotel room in the business La Defense district and took it really slow. We walked around La Defense and decided they must have filmed Back to the Future II here, because it looks just like that town. I was waiting for the hovercrafts to sweep over our heads...or at least the DeLorean. One strange thing about La Defense is that although it is a crazy future town with big sky scrapers and no road in between, there is a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysee. It kind of looked like we were peering into the past from 2050.
On Friday night, we went to my friends' apartment for an American breakfast for dinner party. Their host family was skiing in the Alps, so they had some friends over for this get together. It was delicious!! We had bacon, potatos, eggs, and pancakes. It was hard for them to find all of the ingredients for this, since the French breakfast is usually a croissant and a cup of tea. We even had maple syrup with our pancakes, which proved to be quite a delicacy, because the bottle of Aunt Jamima cost 10e and it was on sale from 12.
Brett and I spent the rest of the weekend sleeping in, watching French game shows where everyone won an encyclopedia, and watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle over and over again from our hotel room window. Soon the weekend, ended and I had serious study time for my midterms. Now, the studying continues! Next weekend, off to Scotland!
Leah
It all sounds so wonderful! I'm glad you're able to fit in sight-seeing with all your work. Aren't those walking tours great? My friend brought a deck to Holland when we were there, and even though we would often get side-tracked, they led us into some parts of town we would probably not have gotten to otherwise... Also, I think it's funny that of all the cafes in Paris, you guys went to Starbucks! Say hello to Brett for me! Have fun in Scotland!
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